Sponsorhip Week

What this week means is that all the children with sponsors will show up to get uniforms including shoes, socks, pants, shirts and sweaters, and there will be many others coming for help. They have heard of us through friends but now we are not taking new applications, as there are 40 on the waiting list so we have to start turning away children today. There were about 20 people waiting at 7:30 when Carolyn, Michelle and I got there, so we all started taking names and sizes. The hardest one was a girl of 17 with good English who couldn't hold it together when I said we aren't taking new applications- she started crying and I asked a Basotho staff member to care for her- she hadn’t been able to pay last year for school and couldn’t go back to final year- we finally fit her in a fund called the achievers fund. Instinctively you know when to make exceptions.

There has been a lot of activity for three days around buying and lugging the clothes, in boxes, suitcases, down the hill, by taxi etc and then sorting and resorting as they get handed out. There are so many lists about what is what and what has been purchased and disbursed that we are now the "keepers of the lists" Makes VVC look like a snap! Had to drive to another town to ask 2 High Schools to get sizes for children that haven't come in and then back up country Thurs to purchase large order and get the clothes to these two schools.

There is a lot of concern regarding the association with the whites singling out the children so we have to be discreet. There is a little boy of 14, Paki, who has had an exceptionally hard time. He was associated with the Peace Corps as both his parents had died and he cares for his 12 yr old sister. They were very visible in his life and he started to be bullied and even assaulted at school. He has started with us and had to change schools, but there has to be continued support, as he has nothing, no food or fuel, so we must find a way to do it such as establishing secret drop off spots. Life here is incredibly hard for many, and as you can imagine, he is very solemn.

This will all wrap up soon as the children must have all the supplies this week to attend school and then I will be off to the orphanage.